information about cb radio

mumwith2,

Not sure what you are asking here. So excuse me if I get a bit basic.
What most people call CB radio (citizens band) is the old 27MHz CB. Almost nobody uses these anymore. They operate in the HF band (high frquency) and as such are prone to interference and unreliable propogation depending on ionospheric conditions. They can however (when conditions are right) transmit very long distances around the globe.

CB radio these days is UHF (ultra high frquency). It is more relaiable for short distance communications. In the bush in normal terrain this is probably about 3 kilometres or so, sometimes a fair bit more.

By using a repeater (and there are repeaters everywhere, even in the Simpson Desert) you can transmit longer distances perhaps 100 k. So buy a UHF with a repeater function (its called duplex) and go for a moderate gain antenna, not a high gain because high gain gives less reliable coverage in rough terrain but is better in flat terrain.

As for brands, thats your choice, plenty of good manufacturers out there. I have an Electrophone TX4400 and it is great. Front mounted speaker so I can mount in overhead console, selcall, duplex, 20 user programmable channels (you can set these to the police channels if you so wish).

Go to a good communicatios store and see what suits you

Hope this helps

Big question there mum - Have a look at a few resources first - try VKS737.on.net - PDF's page - Communication comparisons sheet (and others). Being very simplistic, virtually all mobile CB users are now buying 40 ch UHF, with the basic scan and duplex functions. Makes ? GME, Icom and Uniden might be the most popular, in that order.

Depends what you want it for.

If it's only for car to car communication over short distances, a cheapo hand held for about $40 will do the job. Just make sure you get one that will take a power adaptor or the batteries will send you broke.

Cheers,

Jim.

Give some thought to the aerial as it is the part that sends the signal out and a good aerial will give much better range than a bit wire on the roobar. I prefer to use a high gain aerial with simpler 40 ch Transceiver (GME) to be able to keep contact over longer distances. Quite handy for picking up wide/long escorted loads on the road ahead.